Your Mac is slower than it used to be, and startup feels sluggish even though you haven't changed anything obvious. One of the most common reasons is a login item list that has quietly grown over years of installing software.
Most apps add themselves to your startup list during installation and never tell you. By the time you notice something is wrong, there might be a dozen things running before you've even opened your first app of the day.
How do apps end up launching at startup?
When you install most Mac apps, the installer asks macOS to register a login item on its behalf. Sometimes there is a checkbox during setup that lets you opt out. More often, the registration happens silently and you never see it.
Common patterns you've probably agreed to without realising:
- Adobe Creative Cloud installs a helper app that checks for updates and keeps Creative Cloud services running. It starts at login whether or not you use any Adobe apps that day.
- Microsoft AutoUpdate registers itself to check for Office updates in the background. If you have Word, Excel, or Outlook installed, it's probably there.
- Printer software from HP, Canon, Epson, and others often installs a status monitor or scan utility that runs permanently.
- Any app with a menu-bar icon almost certainly adds itself to your login list. Widgets, clipboard managers, window managers, VPNs, launchers: all of them.
- Apps you installed and stopped using keep their login items even after you've forgotten the app exists. The app sits unused in your Applications folder while its helper quietly starts every time you log in.
None of this is malicious. These apps have legitimate reasons to run in the background. The problem is they accumulate, and nobody ever goes back to clean up the ones you stopped needing.
The two lists you need to know about
Modern macOS splits startup items into two separate lists, and understanding the difference matters when you decide what to keep.
Open at Login is the list most people know about. These are apps that launch with a visible window (or a Dock icon) when you log in. Spotify opening automatically, a writing app restoring your last document, or a todo app you told to start at login.
Allow in the Background is the one most people miss. These apps run silently: no window, no Dock icon, often no obvious sign they're running at all. Sync clients, update checkers, helper daemons, and app extensions all live here. They are frequently the bigger drag on your system because they run indefinitely without you ever thinking to close them.
Both lists are in the same place: System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions. Apple added this panel in macOS Ventura (2022). If you're on an older macOS, the equivalent is System Preferences › Users & Groups › Login Items, though the background items list won't exist in that older view.
For an authoritative reference, see Apple's official guide to login items.
Step-by-step: how to disable login items on Mac
- Open System Settings. Click the Apple menu in the top-left corner and choose System Settings.
- Click General in the sidebar on the left. You may need to scroll down to find it.
- Click Login Items & Extensions. This opens the panel with both lists.
- Review the Open at Login list. For each item, ask: do I actually want this open the moment I log in, every day? If not, click the toggle to turn it off. You can also select an item and click the minus button to remove it entirely.
- Review the Allow in the Background list. Work through this list carefully. Click the toggle on anything you don't recognise or don't actively rely on.
- Restart your Mac to confirm the changes worked. The items you disabled should no longer appear in Activity Monitor.
The whole process takes two to three minutes. If anything breaks after your restart, open the same panel and re-enable whatever you just turned off. Nothing is permanent here.
What is safe to disable
When in doubt, turn it off and see what happens. Most login items are things an app added for its own convenience, not yours. That said, here are the common offenders that are almost always safe to disable:
- Adobe Creative Cloud helper - disabling this does not stop your Adobe apps from working. It just means Creative Cloud won't auto-launch. You can still open it manually when you need it.
- Microsoft AutoUpdate - Office will still work fine. Updates just won't install in the background without your input, which many people prefer anyway.
- Printer software - HP Smart, Canon IJ, Epson status monitors. Your printer will still print. You only need these if you regularly use scan-to-Mac features.
- Apps you installed once and forgot. If you see an item and can't remember what it's for, look up the app name. If you don't use the app, disable the login item.
- Game launchers (Steam, Epic, GOG Galaxy) - unless you're actively gaming right now, there's no reason for these to run at startup.
- Old uninstaller helpers and trial software remnants - these sometimes leave login items behind even after the main app is gone.
What you should keep on
Some login items are actually useful and you'll notice if they're gone. Keep these running:
- Dropbox or Google Drive - if you use either for file syncing, they need to run at login to keep your files up to date. Disable them only if you've moved off those services.
- 1Password, Bitwarden, or your password manager - these need to run in the background for browser autofill and other integrations to work properly.
- Backup software - Backblaze, Carbon Copy Cloner, and similar tools need to run continuously to catch new files. Disabling them means your backups stop.
- Work-required tools - VPN clients, endpoint security software, and IT management tools installed by your employer. Check before disabling.
- Anything you genuinely use every day - if you actually want an app to be ready the moment you sit down, leaving it in your login list is the right call.
The goal is not to get the list to zero. It's to get it to the items you actually want there. For most people that's three to five things, not fifteen.
The result: faster startup, lighter Mac
After trimming your login items, you should notice three things. First, your Mac reaches the desktop faster after you log in. Second, it feels more responsive in the first few minutes after boot, because it isn't simultaneously starting a dozen background processes. Third, your idle memory use drops, which means apps you do open have more room to breathe.
If you want to see the difference, open Activity Monitor (press Command-Space, type "Activity Monitor", press Return) before and after your changes. The Memory tab will show the background items that are no longer running. For more on reading that view, see our guide to how to free up RAM on Mac.
Login items are the boot-time drag. If your Mac still feels sluggish once you're up and running, why is my Mac so slow covers the in-session causes. And if you have an older machine, how to make an old Mac fast again has more targeted advice.
Cleaning up startup is a one-time fix you do once a year. The in-session equivalent is quitting apps you're not using, releasing inactive memory, and clearing out idle processes. That's the kind of thing you'd otherwise do manually every few hours. Shiny handles it in one menu-bar click.